A variety of differing outboard drive devices are known from prior art. Generally, such outboard drive devices include a motor housed in an upper portion of the drive device. In some cases, a crank shaft of the motor extends substantially vertically downward to a propeller shaft arranged in a lower portion of the outboard drive device. The propeller shaft, unlike the crank shaft, is often oriented to be substantially horizontal when said outboard drive device is operated. For example, the vertical crankshaft is connected to the horizontal propeller shaft by means of bevel gears for transferring torque from the vertical crankshaft to the horizontal propeller shaft.
Another known type of outboard drive device involves a motor having a crankshaft extending substantially horizontally. To that end, the crankshaft is connected to a horizontal propeller shaft through a vertically extending drive shaft and bevel gears. In some cases, a forward/reverse/neutral transmission can be arranged between the crankshaft and the vertical drive shaft.
A further known type of outboard drive device involves an outboard propulsion system comprising a motor having a horizontal crankshaft connected to a water jet through a belt.
One problem with conventional outboard drive devices is that they are limited in terms of the motors (or engines) they are able to be configured with, which is often a consequence of their power transmission systems. To that end, even when the power transmission systems are modified to be more durable in functioning with larger, more powerful motors, they correspondingly are complex in design, and thus expensive to produce and maintain over time. Embodiments of the present invention are intended to the address the above-described challenges as well as others.